Blog
The LeaseRooster blog
What we are learning about running rentals, plus product news from the LeaseRooster team.
Posts
101 posts-
Keeping a vendor list you actually use
Most landlords have a vendor list. Few open it, because it cannot answer the question they have at 10 at night. The columns that make a vendor list useful, the one you update after every job, and the tax column most people leave blank until January. Blog post -
How to require renters insurance in a lease, and make it stick
A requirement nobody verifies is a sentence, not a rule. The four things the clause has to specify, the difference between additional insured and additional interest, and what to do at renewal when the policy quietly lapses. Laws and rules -
What an uninsured tenant actually costs a landlord
The exposure is not that you owe for their furniture. It is your deductible, your lost rent, your renewal rate, and a claimant with nowhere else to look. Five mechanisms, and what to do about each. Money -
Renters insurance and landlord insurance cover different things
Two policies, two jobs, almost no overlap. What your dwelling policy pays for, what the tenant's HO-4 pays for, and the gap in the middle that neither one closes unless somebody buys both. Money -
What renters insurance costs, and what moves the number
The national average was $170 a year and has been falling. State averages run from $114 to $258. What sits behind that spread, and the five inputs a tenant can actually change. Money -
What one rental unit costs to run, by the published numbers
Lenders haircut rental income by 25 percent before they will count it. Here is what the public data says that 25 percent is actually paying for, line by line, and how to run the same arithmetic on your own unit. Money -
Do tenants need renters insurance? What the answer depends on
No state law requires it. Your lease can, and most tenants who decline are declining a policy they have never had explained. Here is what it actually covers, what it costs, and how to have the conversation without a fight. Money -
The turnover, sequenced so the unit is not empty for three weeks
A vacant unit costs about a thirtieth of the rent every day it stays vacant. Here is the order of operations that shortens the gap, the work that only makes sense between tenancies, and the federal rule that catches landlords doing their own paint prep. Money -
How to prorate first month's rent
Three methods produce three different numbers for the same move-in date, and all three are used. Pick one, write it into the lease, and use it for every tenant. Money -
Why LeaseRooster exists
Software for landlords is built either for one unit or for two thousand, and the people in between end up as the switchboard between their tenant and their plumber. That gap is the reason this company exists, and it is the first thing the product was built to close. Behind LeaseRooster -
Rent grace periods, explained
A grace period does not move the day rent is due. It moves the day a fee attaches, and confusing the two is how landlords end up with a tenant who genuinely believes rent is due on the sixth. Laws and rules -
How to follow up with rental leads: one written cadence, every lead
The fair way to follow up with rental inquiries is also the one that fills units: a short written cadence, applied the same way to every lead. What goes in it, what never does, and how the statuses in a lead inbox keep track of it. Screening